Marco Rubio News

Marco Rubio announced on Monday (local time) the imposition of visa restrictions on Chinese officials responsible for limiting the access of US officials to Tibetan areas. This move is in response to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) long-standing refusal to allow US diplomats, journalists, and international observers into Tibet while Chinese officials enjoy unrestricted access to the United States. «Today, I am taking steps to impose additional visa restrictions on Chinese officials determined to be substantially involved in the formulation or execution of policies related to access for foreigners to Tibetan Areas, pursuant to the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018,» Rubio said in a statement. «For far too long, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has refused to afford US diplomats, journalists, and other international observers access to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and other Tibetan areas of China, while China's diplomats and journalists enjoy broad access in the United States. US diplomats are also unable to provide services to US citizens traveling in Tibet,» he added. Further, the US urged the CCP to immediately address this issue and allow diplomats and others unrestricted access to TAR.

international students in the US have received emails from the US State Department instructing them to self-deport due to alleged involvement in campus activism. Immigration attorneys confirmed to TOI's Lubna Kably that some Indian students are also among those affected, with actions as minor as sharing a social media post leading to visa revocations. This crackdown follows a directive from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which mandates social media reviews of both current international students and new applicants for student visas. Those found in violation face visa cancellations, making them ineligible to study in the US. Axios previously reported that this effort, powered by artificial intelligence, has resulted in the revocation of over 300 student visas. Affected students have been informed that their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records have been terminated, leaving them no grace period to stay in the country. The email states, «On behalf of the US Department of State, the Bureau of Consular Affairs Visa Office hereby informs you that additional information became available after your visa was issued. As a result, your F-1 visa with expiration date XXXXX was revoked in accordance with Section 221(i) of the US Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended.»

Trump administration is considering measures to prohibit some colleges from enrolling any foreign students if they are deemed «pro-Hamas,» according to senior officials from the Justice and State Departments. The move, which could involve grand jury subpoenas, marks a further expansion of the administration’s immigration policies and efforts to counter antisemitism, though civil rights groups argue it suppresses free speech. Policy background The proposal stems from the «Catch and Revoke» program, an initiative led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Initially targeting foreign students allegedly involved in pro-Palestinian protests, the program has resulted in over 300 student visa cancellations in three weeks. Officials state that the government is scrutinizing universities with a significant number of foreign students engaging in demonstrations, which could lead to decertification from the Student and Exchange Visitor Program.

humanitarian parole program for Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants has placed Cuban American Republicans in a political dilemma. Many now face pressure to either support ending the Biden-era program—popular among their communities—or break ranks with former President Trump, whom they overwhelmingly back. The program, which allowed over 500,000 migrants to live and work in the U.S. for up to two years with sponsors, disproportionately benefited Cubans, the largest group of beneficiaries.

Trump administration, accusing them of violating federal record-keeping laws by discussing military operations on the encrypted messaging app Signal. The case, filed by American Oversight, names Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as defendants. “The Federal Records Act requires federal officials to preserve communications related to official government business,” American Oversight stated in its lawsuit, which seeks to prevent the destruction of federal records and compel compliance with the law. At the heart of the case is an extraordinary blunder: journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was mistakenly added to the group chat in which senior Trump officials were reportedly discussing a planned strike in Yemen. The lawsuit, however, does not focus on the security breach itself but rather on the officials’ alleged failure to preserve these critical communications.

Jeffrey Goldberg said on March that he was accidentally added to a group chat with top members of the Trump Administration, as they discussed plans to attack the Houthis of Yemen earlier this month. Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, detailed the events in an article for the publication (“The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans”). The group chat on the encrypted messaging platform Signal included US Vice President JD Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Trump administration officials mistakenly disclosed war plans in a messaging group that included a journalist shortly before the U.S. attacked Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, the White House said on Monday, following a first-hand account by The Atlantic. Democratic lawmakers swiftly blasted the misstep, saying it was a breach of U.S. national security and a violation of law that must be investigated by Congress. The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said in a report on Monday that he was unexpectedly invited on March 13 to an encrypted chat group on the Signal messaging app called the «Houthi PC small group.» In the group, national security adviser Mike Waltz tasked his deputy Alex Wong with setting up a «tiger team» to coordinate U.S. action against the Houthis. National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said the chat group appeared to be authentic. U.S. President Donald Trump launched an ongoing campaign of large-scale military strikes against Yemen's Houthis on March 15 over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, and he warned Iran, the Houthis' main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group.

Donald Trump has denied signing the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants. “I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it,” Trump told reporters. Trump, however, defended his administration saying, “We want to get criminals out of our country, number one, and I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it...Other people handled it, but (Secretary of State) Marco Rubio has done a great job and he wanted them out and we go along with that. We want to get criminals out of our country.” His comments came after Judge James Boasberg claimed that the proclamation was “signed in the dark” of night and that migrants were hurried onto planes, CNN reported. The judge had issued a two-week temporary block on Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport 238 alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. The judge said in court that any flights already en route should return to the US. His written order following the hearing appeared in the court's online docket, the justice department said in a court filing.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President Trump has access to a powerful tool that isn’t tariffs for his trade war with China, but it isn’t clear whether China hawks will convince him to unleash it. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a U.S.

Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has given the administration until noon (1600 GMT) to either provide specifics on when the deportation flights took off and landed so he can determine whether they violated his order, or to invoke a legal doctrine involving state secrets to avoid sharing those details and explain their reasons for doing so. Boasberg gave the Justice Department the option of giving him the flight details under seal, meaning they would not be made public. But the judge expressed skepticism that the state secrets doctrine — which protects sensitive national security information from being disclosed in civil litigation — was applicable, given that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted details of the flights on social media.

Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that they had a constructive call about moving toward a ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow, with the White House suggesting the U.S. could take control of Ukrainian power plants to ensure their security. Trump told Zelenskyy that the U.S could be «very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise,» according to a White House statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz that described the call as «fantastic.» Trump added that «American ownership of those plants could be the best protection for that infrastructure.» Zelenskyy and Trump discussed in general terms the possibility of a ceasefire, according to a senior Ukrainian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to comment publicly. During the call, there was an emphasis how any ceasefire process would need to be monitored and that the teams still needed to resolve technical issues, said the official, who characterized the call as «a very good conversation, positive, with the jokes.» During the call, Zelenskyy requested additional Patriot defense missile systems. Rubio and Waltz said Trump «agreed to work with him to find what was available, particularly in Europe.»

The conversation lasted approximately an hour, and Trump indicated that further details would be provided soon. “Just completed a very good telephone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs. We are very much on track.” Trump also confirmed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz would release a statement outlining the points discussed. On Tuesday, Trump spoke with Putin about a possible partial ceasefire. Putin agreed not to target energy infrastructure but refused to back a full 30-day ceasefire.

deportation of Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school, has sparked concerns about the treatment of H-1B visa holders under the Trump administration. Despite holding a valid H-1B visa and a federal court order temporarily blocking her removal, Alawieh was deported, raising questions about the future of employment-based visas in the United States. Dr. Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen, was detained at Boston Logan International Airport after returning from a family visit to Lebanon. She was held for 36 hours before being put on a flight to Paris, even though US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had been ordered to give 48 hours' notice before any such action. CBP has not provided an explanation for why the court order was disregarded. Legal representatives for Dr. Alawieh and her cousin, Yara Chehab, have filed cases against senior Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, seeking answers on whether her deportation signals a policy shift against H-1B visa holders.

The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight U.S. strikes killed at least 53 people, including five women and two children, and wounded almost 100 in the capital of Sanaa and other provinces, including Saada, the rebels' stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia. «We're not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot. And so your question is, how long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that,» Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday. He said these are not the one-off retaliation strikes the Biden administration carried out after Houthi attacks. President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to use «overwhelming lethal force» until the Houthis cease their attacks, and warned that Tehran would be held «fully accountable» for their actions. The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally.

Venezuelan gang to be imprisoned in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele said Sunday, after US counterpart Donald Trump invoked wartime authorities to expel migrants. Trump signed an order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 on Friday, but it was not publicly announced until Saturday. The wartime authority allows a president to detain or deport citizens of an enemy nation, but has been invoked only three times before during major international conflicts. Civil rights groups sued to block the order, with a federal judge Saturday granting a temporary suspension of the order, apparently as planes were already headed to El Salvador. «Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country,» Bukele said on X. Bukele, in a meeting last month with US secretary of state Marco Rubio, had offered to house prisoners from the US in his country. He said in his post that the alleged gang members had been sent to the country's maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center. The detention and expulsion order will apply to all Venezuelan Tren de Aragua members who are over 14 and not naturalized US citizens or lawful permanent residents.

Trump administration escalated its rift with South Africa by declaring the country’s ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, persona non grata—a rare diplomatic rebuke typically reserved for lower-ranking officials. Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Rasool of harboring anti-Trump sentiments, citing a webinar where the ambassador criticized Elon Musk’s ties to far-right European figures. Rubio’s announcement, made via social media during a flight from G7 meetings, left the State Department scrambling to clarify details, including whether Rasool was even in the U.S. at the time. Rasool, a veteran anti-apartheid activist and ally of Nelson Mandela, previously served as ambassador from 2010–2015 before returning in January. His expulsion follows Trump’s executive order slashing aid to South Africa, citing contested claims about land reforms targeting white Afrikaners. The move marks a dramatic downturn in relations, echoing Cold War-era diplomatic standoffs but breaking precedent by targeting an ambassador.

Keir Starmer has told global leaders to «keep the pressure» on Russian President Vladimir Putin to back a ceasefire in Ukraine. In his opening remarks Saturday to a virtual gathering of what he has termed the "coalition of the willing," Starmer said Putin will «sooner or later» have to «come to the table.» Unlike the first summit on March 2, the meeting of what Starmer has termed the «coalition of the willing» is being conducted virtually. The call is expected to delve into how countries can help Ukraine militarily and financially as well as gauging support for any future possible peacekeeping mission. «If Russia finally comes to the table, then we must be ready to monitor a ceasefire to ensure it is a serious, and enduring peace,» Starmer told leaders, in remarks released by his office ahead of the meeting. «If they don't, then we need to strain every sinew to ramp up economic pressure on Russia to secure an end to this war.» Like last time, there will be no representative from the United States, which has shifted its approach on the war since the return of President Donald Trump to the White House. The change of approach relative to that taken by Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, became particularly notable after Trump clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Feb. 28 in the Oval Office.

«In the days to come, you should expect more visas will be revoked as we identify people that we should have never allowed in,» Rubio told reporters following a meeting of G7 foreign ministers. The Trump administration is moving to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident of the United States who recently graduated from Columbia University and had helped lead high-profile campus protests against Israel's war in the Gaza Strip.